Fire Doug #17 / Noisy Waters Northwest

Click the graphic to access the seattlepi blog post, “Lobbyists keep picking up the bill for state Sen. Doug Ericksen

September 11, 2018 Dena Jensen

Today, as we mark 15 days worth of Doug’s Got to Go posts,we remember that back in October of 2014, Joel Connelly for seattlepi reported that Republican State Senator Doug Ericksen, “gained unwanted recognition last year when the Associated Press and public radio stations found he had accepted $2,029 worth of free meals, drinks and golf games on 62 occasions during the first four months of 2013.”

Senator Ericksen was running for election against former Bellingham city councilman Seth Fleetwoodin 2014. As a result of what public records had revealed about these gifts from lobbyists to legislators like Senator Ericksen, according to seattlepi, the Legislative Ethics board voted that year to limit House and Senate members to 12 free meals per session.

The article went on:

“One particular incident has stuck in critics’ craw.Ericksen took his [Senate Energy, Environment and Telecommunications] committee to Spokane in June, to hear testimony on the safety of trains carrying flammable Bakken crude oil from North Dakota to refineries in Puget Sound.Rail traffic is funneled through a narrow corridor in downtown Spokane, close to the city’s major hospitals.

“But railroads and oil companies were allowed to take up 90 minutes of the two-hour hearing.The focus was not on public concerns but on reassurances by rail shippers.

“A day before the hearing, Ericksen was treated to a round of golf at Spokane’s Indian Head golf course, with lobbyists picking up the tab.”